Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Speak Your Mindset

Ursula
grew up in a very poor New York City neighborhood.She was one of three siblings and the
daughter of a single mother who emigrated from Panama.When Ursula was seven years old, her family
moved from their tiny tenement apartment to a group of nearby housing
projects.Most Americans hope that they
never have to live in housing projects, but to Ursula’s family, the move was a
dramatic improvement.

Ursula’s
mother worked tirelessly to keep her children fed and clothed, and to provide
them each a good education.She ran a
daycare out of their home and took in laundry for washing and ironing, even
trading services with a doctor in the neighborhood to keep the family healthy.

Thanks
to her mother’s struggles, Ursula was able to attend a private school, where
she discovered a talent for numbers and math.Her mother also imparted as much wisdom to her children as she could,
drilling in the idea that, “where you are is not who you
are.”This motto kept Ursula pushing
forward in life despite her family’s poverty, helping her to excel in high
school and as she began to apply to colleges.Ursula decided to attend the Brooklyn Polytechnic University.She wanted the best education she could get,
and believed that going a different route than most people would be a positive
asset for her future.

Ursula
was awarded the Higher Education Opportunity Program scholarship at Brooklyn
Polytechnic, and although she was behind some of the other students
academically when school began, she caught up quickly.In no time, she was enjoying a successful
college career, and was even asked by the head of the scholarship program to
lead a tutoring group to help other students succeed.

Choosing
a road less taken by many of her female peers, Ursula earned her Bachelor of
Science degree in engineering.In
defiance of being steered toward more traditional career paths in nursing or
teaching, she entered a graduate program in mechanical engineering at Columbia
University.The program was specifically
created for minority students, and the tuition was partially paid by the Xerox
Corporation.It also included a summer
internship with Xerox.

Another
important approach to life that Ursula learned from her mother was that if she
had a strong opinion about something, she should speak up and make herself
heard.After several years of working
her way into the company, Ursula attended an informal employee gathering led by
some of the top executives to discuss “the quality of work life” at the company.During the meeting, one employee raised a
question about policies related to hiring standards, and whether they were
lowered to accommodate greater diversity within the company… which is a nice
way of asking if the company purposely made it easier for women or minorities
to work there.

Xerox’s
president of marketing and customer operations answered the question,
explaining that no, the company did not lower its standards for anyone.Ursula knew that if she was advancing faster
than others, it had nothing to do with race or gender, but simply with
performance.Any question about the
company lowering its hiring standards was undignified, and she said so.The president engaged her about the issue,
and she suggested (in front of the entire meeting) that he should attack any
such assertion about their company, rather than responding as if it had merit.

Although
the president felt Ursula needed to appreciate the value of diplomacy, her guts
and intelligence impressed him.Not long
after, she was promoted to become his executive assistant, a job that served as
an informal leadership-training program, and which signaled that she was on the
executive track.Within a few more
years, Ursula was the vice president of worldwide manufacturing, and there wasn't
a part of the manufacturing process she hadn't touched or a product she didn't
understand.

In
2009, almost thirty years after she first joined the company, Ursula Burns took
the reins at Xerox, becoming the first African-American female CEO of a Fortune
500 company.She also points out that
taking over the job from then-Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy made it the first
female-to-female CEO transition in Fortune 500 history.

Forbes
magazine named Ursula the 14th most powerful woman in the world and
asked her to share advice for the next generation of leaders. She said, “Leave
behind more than you take. Focus on making a difference for others more than
your own selfish desires, and you will lead a fulfilling and rewarding life.”

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Scott Shickler

About me

Scott is one of the world’s leading experts on youth empowerment and entrepreneurship. The Wall Street Journal referred to him as a serial and parallel entrepreneur due to the number of businesses he started in diverse industries. Collectively his companies have grossed over $37 million with businesses ranging from software to seminars and real estate to restaurants. Shickler is the author or coauthor of 8 books including, The Ultimate Entrepreneur and The 7 Mindsets to Live Your Ultimate Life. Scott also wrote the Boy Scout Merit Badge booklet on entrepreneurship. He has been featured on CNN, ABC & NBC News, and in The New York Times. Shickler is currently the CEO and founder of Excent Corporation – a multi-million dollar education company serving millions of students and educators throughout the world. Scott grew up in New York and now lives in Atlanta with his wife and two sons. He is a graduate of Fordham University and also the cofounder of the Magic Wand Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to empowering youth to live their dreams.